Calciphylaxis

[ErinS, BSN, RN]

I have now seen 6 patients with calciphylaxis. This is supposed to be an extremely rare disease, but I feel like we see a lot for this disease to be 'extremely' rare. Just wondering if any of you have dealt with this. I know that I am more likely to see this than a hospital nurse, because I work with dying people, but 6 patients in 2 years is a lot. For comparison, I have seen Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (another extremely rare disease) 2 times in 3 years.

For those who do not know, it is generally diagnosed in stage 5 kidney failure, and is calcification of small blood vessels throughout the body that leads to severe necrotic wounds. It is fatal.

[robinfuturenurse]

I am a second year nursing student. In clinicals this week, I was assigned to a patient who was diagnosed with calciphylaxis. I am shocked to read that in 2 years, you have treated 6 patients with this disease as it is so rare. My patient has been on dialysis for the past two years and developed lesions a couple months ago. Currently working on my care plans.

[tewdles, RN]

So this is possibly a result of long term dialysis?

[ErinS, BSN, RN]

It is not a result of long term dialysis, but it happens almost exclusively in end stage chronic renal failure (so of course, most people have been on long term dialysis). I am not sure they know exactly what causes it, but we will be seeing more as our population gets sicker I think.